GOTCHA DAY!!!

Day 9 ~ January 21, 2002


It's official. At approximately 3:00 p.m. on January 21, 2002, Julia Therese joined our family. The Judge was a lot stricter than I expected and we sweated out a few points during the hearing. The social worker assigned on Julia's behalf was given a reprimand during Court for not being thorough and the Judge never cracked a smile. Finally after 45 minutes she rendered her decision...granting our petition to adopt Julia. We had to wait for about an hour while the decision was written and then we made the almost 2 hour drive out to pick her up. In true fashion a freak blizzard popped up out of no where and made the driving hazardous. Our driver never seemed to notice which may have made the snow appear worse! I don't think he went below 55 mph the whole ride. He laughed when Anthony, I and the translator just about kissed the ground on arrival. When we got to the orphanage no one had left word that we were coming and it was touch and go there for a minute as to whether or not they were going to let us take her--or so they thought...we were not leaving without her. We changed her into her new pretty in pink going to the big city outfit (Moscow) and away we went. Luckily, the snow stopped and the roads were clear on the way back to the hotel. The youngest Miss Julia slept the whole way. She awoke in the hotel lobby with a BIG smile...I guess she approves of our hotel selection!

I write this in the dark as Julia sleeps, getting ready for her new life! Oh she told me in the car that she can't wait to get home...

Love and Kisses, Alice, Anthony & Julia

It's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that six years have passed. The time is moving much too quickly. These have been the best six years of my life. Thank you Julia for picking us as your forever family. You have given us more joy than I ever thought possible. We love you Julia. I am ever grateful for the miracle of YOU. I am still so in love... Happy Gotcha Day! Love, Mommy, Daddy, Christopher, and Barney XXOO

~The Rest of The Trip Up to Gotcha Day~

Since I got a little behind on these posts due to my FLORIDA trip here's the rest up to Gotcha Day which is tomorrow!

DAY 5 ~ January 17, 2002

Julia is doing better with every visit. Today she tried to give kisses back to us. She is smiling and trying to interact with us more each day. Today she found pulling Alice's hair fascinating. We were able to feed her again today and we gave her some formula to hopefully give her the vitamins that she does not get from the food they give. All the babies in the orphanage have colds including Julia and the Russian cure for colds is HEAT! It is about 90 in the hospital and they give each child a "heat treatment" for congestion. It looked to me like the same equipment
used to give a facial. It is a steam mask that they put on each child -- no wonder they are all sick! Today I (Alice) had the unfortunate experience of visiting the restroom in the facility and let me just say that we will bring pictures because there is just no explaining it. The drive back and forth to Sergiev Posad is long and there are no emissions standards here so you are pretty much overcome with fumes during the drive. Today we visited the Monastery at Sergiev Posad which is one of the biggest and most prestigious in Russia. It is one of 5 with a special title. Outside of the Monastery there are old women and children begging it is very sad. There are several churches at the Monastery and we went into the oldest one. It was incredibly beautiful and there were monks singing inside. You are not allowed to take any pictures anywhere on the Monastery grounds. We hope to visit Red Square tomorrow after we visit Julia. We are still not completely on-board with the time change here so we haven't done a lot of sight seeing. The drive back and forth to Julia is 4 hours so it hard to do much more. We tried to get tickets to the circus but in true Maisano luck...it is closed until the day after we go home.

We hope all is well at home and we can't wait to be back, Anthony, Alice & Julia (who now sends lots of kisses)

The following picture is the hospital where Julia was born:

DAY 6 ~ January 18, 2002

Well TGIF from Moscow! Only three more days and we can pick Julia up and keep her with us in the hotel. It is getting harder with each visit to leave her behind and go sightseeing. Even though there is a lot to see here after our visit with Julia it is hard to be excited about doing anything except going back to see her.

Today was the first day since we have been here that Anthony wore his glasses and Julia found them fascinating. She pulled them off his head and proceeded to use them as a teething ring. Her cold seems to be getting better and we are seeing her stubborn side...she absolutely refused to nap today. I can't say I blame her because every time she falls asleep we are told to leave so now she realizes that we will stay if she stays awake. She was incredibly tired and having trouble
keeping her eyes open, but she wouldn't give in. The caretakers nevertheless made us leave.

This afternoon we went to Arbat Street which is a pedestrian shopping/restaurant street. It is pretty cold here today so we walked through it pretty fast before stopping for lunch and some homemade Russian beer. There are outdoor vendors who are really pushy yet really willing to bargain so shopping is easy there. Also it is amazing how good their English gets when you mention dollars as opposed to rubbles! As you walk away they just keep lowering the price until you buy--I know a few of you who would just love that. Then we rode the Metro. The only way I
can explain it is it reminded me of the Space Ship Earth (giant golf ball) at Epcot. The escalators are really steep and it seems that you go down into the ground for 5 minutes and then back up again. It is so steep that you kind of have to bend over at the waist not to get dizzy. Also they have a rule that you stand to the right so people who want to walk up or down faster can do so--I didn't know that at first (oops)...Tomorrow after we visit Julia we are going to Red Square
because tomorrow is Epiphany and there is a special service at St. Basil. On Sunday we hope to go to some flea market -- Anthony is still looking for that fur hat. It is so funny to walk down the street with our translator Vera and Anthony, the beggars and street vendors all try to get Anthony and they ignore me. I guess Anthony must look more like a tourist here than me. It doesn't help
that he wears a bright red jacket. I hope all is well at home. Have I mentioned how I can't wait to get home? We miss everyone and we need a STARBUCKS really bad!

Love, Alice, Anthony & Julia



DAY 7 ~ January 19, 2002

From: Anthony

Since this one is from me, it will be a lot shorter than the emails Alice writes.
Today we visited Julia in the morning and part of the afternoon and then visited Red Square,the Kremlin and the various Cathedrals. We tried to get Julia to walk today, she took a couple of steps (see picture) which was really cool since when we got here on Monday she would not even sit up. It was the Epiphany here in Russia today and they have a tradition that all natural water sources take on healing powers and stay fresh forever. The Cathedral which is in the town where we have been driving to see Julia has an underground stream which flows through the church so it was crowed with people collected the water. Russians actually put on bathing suits and swim in the water to take on its natural healing powers.(No pictures for this because pictures are not allowed any place on the grounds, but we bought a book)

That's it for today. See ya




DAY 8 ~ January 20, 2002

Here we are on Day 8 in Moscow. It is 5:00 pm here and there is absolutely nothing to do around here. All of the American television channels are off and have been since last night. It's too cold to go outside and then again really where would we go. While there are things to do and see in Moscow, it is difficult to get around because there haven't been many accommodations made for tourists. For the first time in my life I know what it would be like not to be able to read. Their
alphabet is so different from ours you really can't even use a dictionary. In true Alice form, I have a cold with an annoying tickly throat cough so I needed Robitussin DM -- what is the likelihood that you could find that in Russia. Well we asked our interpreter to accompany us to the drug store to help me find something and guess what I found Tussin...I think it's the exact same stuff. It's in a green and white box too. Even a task like buying cough medicine is difficult here because
few people speak English and you can't read a thing. I wouldn't say the people are mean they just aren't friendly so it can also be intimidating.

Today we visited Julia but we couldn't stay long because it was near her nap and she was tired. I think we wore her out yesterday with all the "walking." It was a good feeling leaving there today knowing that the next time we come it will the last. Unfortunately we will not see Julia tomorrow because of Court. Since her orphanage is 2 hours away there is not enough time. Our hearing is at 2:00pm and I can't wait until it's over. Everyone here was so nervous about the court appearance. I'm not but they're starting to make me nervous. Our interpreter is picking us up at
1:00 for court. Hopefully all will go smooth and we will have our adoption decree tomorrow afternoon. If all goes as expected we will pick her up on Tuesday morning (YIPPIE) and she will stay with us from now on.

Well hopefully Moscow Day #9 will be a great day!

We miss everyone so much. It's lonely here. We've been gone so long Barney will probably pack his bags to go to Australia with Milton! Although I suspect that Milton will bid Barney a fond farewell and remind himself to never ever get a Wheaten Terrier. I should have mentioned to Milton that many call Wheatens Terror Terriers oh well too late now. I hear Milton has been busy with Christmas wrapping paper just to keep Barney happy. Milton is the best for putting up with my furry Dollie who is quite a handful. Julia is dying to meet Barney and everyone else. FYI, Milton, Anthony was supposed to fix that door the glass wasn't screwed in properly but he wasn't able to do it.

More tomorrow, love Alice Anthony & Julia



Tomorrow is GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!

Day 4 -- January 15th The Court Date

Just wanted to let you know that our court date is Monday at 2:00pm. So it looks like things are on schedule. Every day Julia gets a little better. When we first got here she couldn't really sit up by herself and today she did. It is truly amazing how resilient these children are against all odds. One of the other babies actually started to walk today and when her parents first got here she
couldn't stand. Today we were able to feed her and spend a little more time with her. She also gave us her first gift--colds. We're both sick...I've been trying the Zicam again but we'll see.

We won't be able to e-mail as much or do AOL Instant Messenger because we just checked our hotel bill and it is $1.50 per 3 minutes to go on line--can you believe that? I've already racked up quite a bill so we probably won't send any more pictures--you will just have to wait until we get home.

When we got to Sergiev Posad today to visit her she was wearing one of the outfits we donated -- too funny because I recognized it and it was a boys outfit but at least it was clean and fit her.

Hopefully we will have her with us Tuesday and then we will hurry to do our paperwork so we can come home on Saturday...I can't wait to get home. Well it is late here so I will e-mail again when I can.

Passport Pictures-January 14, 2002

It's us again. I hope these e-mails aren't like a bad vacation slide show! Thanks to everyone for your e-mails. The only television channel we get is Turner Classic Movies so we are so grateful for news from home. Today we brought Julia to get her passport pictures taken and then we went to Moscow City to get a Notary to approve some papers. The Notary here is a lot more official, its like a little court thing you do. Julia was not happy she cried to whole way in the car but we got through it and will see her again tomorrow. We walked by the KGB building on the way.